Discs? Who Wants Storage On Discs?

from the let-'em-fade-away dept

You may have noticed that we've almost entirely ignored the supposedly raging battle over the new DVD format. The New York Times is now recognizing what we suggested months ago. The whole battle over next generation DVDs is somewhat pointless because people seem to be moving well beyond disc-based storage. Of course, if the two sides actually came to an agreement and offered a single standard, it could generate some interest -- but it would need to happen soon. However, with two competing standards, high prices, and all sorts of other problems (such as overly aggressive copy protection), it seems that many consumers just aren't interested. The entertainment industry seemed to believe that the "here's our new format, now go replace your entire collection" business model would continue forever -- but it appears that more than a few people are fed up. Obviously, the concept of storage on discs isn't entirely dead, and won't go away for quite some time, but it does seem sort of quaint to think that disc-based storage is going to be a growth area any time soon.

Reader Comments

The reasons HD DVD / Blu Ray

... will fail are so many it's not even funny:

1. as you mention the size limits and the nature of a phisical medium are already kinda old even before they're in manifacturing.

2. more important, DVD-s offer all the advantages of a digital medium and HD DVD offers nothing more than higher resolution, which with modern upconvertors is not that essential as the industry makes you believe (yes HD still looks better, but it doesn't look incredibly better).

3. Most people don't have HDTV to make use of the extra resolution.

4. Even those that have, may very well need to buy a new one with that damn 'secure' pathway encryption, forgot the name. Makes the tagline "HDTV ready" just absurd.

5. Both HD formats have been DRM-ed silly.. it won't be fun to use them.

6. People need to buy new DVD players.. and the fact we have two formats makes the purchase choice harder, and the fact people already have standard DVD players makes it EVEN harder.

It's truly funny to see the industry fight over those, when they're doomed anyways. They'll go the same way DVD audio went (nowhere).

think again

The data volume requirement for individuals is growing exponentially. Just a few days worth of pictures or video at high resolution (which is also increasing) can span GBs. Now what would be a convenient medium to give a copy of these to loved ones? A web site? with Giga Bytes of data flowing out? Think again.I would rather burn a Blu ray or HD-DVD data disc to send to my loved ones. Now the only factor would be how ubiquitous and cheap such discs & readers are. If they came with my shiny new PS3 at 400$ then what more can I ask for to use em ???

Re: think again

I can upload all my pictures and send them to my sister, or parents. Using software then they can download or look at and then decide what to do without ever wasting money on a disc that wouldnt even hold all the pictures I was sending anyways.Dvds scratch too easily. Is it just me or are they difficult to get out of the case? I'm sure someone with a disability could sue because they have broken more than one disc taking them out of the case. Ok back to the new disc format. There are already people coming up with ways to get around the new formats before they are even out. Before long the movie execs and the record execs are going to be charging everone more money because their technology to stop people cost them too much money to use it. I would not go out and buy a new player for either of the new formats. I also wonder how all of this will affect movie rental places. Will movie rentals as we know it be gone?

Re: think again

Well let me think again. If you browse a site or disc you see one-to-few photos at once right?

And you have this wonderful invention "thumbnail" photo galleries which are generated automatically by most image viewers (also there are free products by MS for it), it's not slow to browse huge galleries online.

And hundreds of GB with today's cheap hosting providers is like 4-5 bucks/month.

And giving an URL is less of a hassle than having to burn all that data and physically send it...

Or you think it's handier to mail CD-s around USA to relatives rather than just phone them and tell 'em "hey check my family albums online over here".

No Subject Given

the fact is that 95% of people just dont care

they have realised that they are better just waiting to see which become standard (not which is better) and no matter what it will take a good few years after that before that standard becomes cheep enough that people will start using it and replacing the equipment they already have

Re: other storage formats

Problems on all fronts

The format war has problems on many fronts. First this isn't Beta vs VHS, where those were the only two formats. This is two newcomers vs DVD. DVD is entrenched. DVD wins. As someone else said, 'better' CD replacements already went nowhere thanks to this factor.

Certainly there are also the DRM issues, the preference for the instant fix of on-demand, both pay and [illegal] free downloads. Nothing makes me go 'so what' though the way that rent versus buy does.

I know several people who were rabid DVD buyers between 5 to 10 years ago. Even at the time I didn't see the point, and asked how often they would ever rewatch the movie. After collecting 50, 100, or more movies all of them have realized the answer is they rarely go rewatch those movies, and are even less likely to rewatch the 'extras'. Unless a movie is highly obscure, you'll be able to continue to rent it. All have switched to online and/or in-store video rentals. I've seen articles suggest that DVD sales have trended down in 2004 and 2005, and a format war only seems to make that trend continue.

Are Netflix and Blockbuster going to stock three different formats? Unlikely. Unless there is some serious incentive it is more likely rental places will give the new formats the finger too.

When the drives and blank media get cheap enough they will make a great backup medium for my entire computer systems though.